Spotlight on Salem

Oregon’s legislature meets for a long session only during odd numbered years, which marks another opportunity for OANP to pass legislation to advance or protect naturopathic medicine. Read more to learn about OANP’s legislative priorities for 2017!

SB 856 - Technical Fix: Updating 110 statutes to include NDs

It’s not very sexy, but critical to timely and quality patient care! Many Oregon statutes use out-dated references to or definitions of “physician” which do not include or recognize NDs.

OANP’s legislative committee reviewed hundreds of statutes and identified over 125 references to “physician” that could be updated to include “naturopathic physician.” Then we reached out to over a dozen other organizations to solicit feedback on whether there would be any controversy in updating those statutes, and narrowed the list down to just over 110 references.

You’ve all encountered these barriers at some time or another. Statutes that SB 856 would change to add NDs include:
• POLST & Advance Directive forms
• IEPs for students who have special education needs
• Ordering home help and hospice care
• Returning a student to a sport after a concussion
• Advising minors about birth control
• Providing for children in foster care, adoptive families, or wards of state
• And, well…104 more! Click here for a complete list.

Dr. Regina Dehen, NUNM’s Chief Medical Officer and Laura Farr testified at our first public hearing on March 14, before a very receptive Senate Healthcare Committee and with no opposition from other entities.

Last legislative session, OANP passed a bill requiring insurers to create a pathway for NDs to credential as primary care providers. Several insurers complied right away, but a few carriers imposed 1 or 3 year residency requirements that precluded the vast majority of NDs from being able to credential as PCPS. After years of trying to work with insurers and the insurance division remove these discriminatory barriers to credentialing, we are now supporting HB 3400 to specifically prohibit insurers from making additional training a credentialing requirement for NDs.

This bill was introduced by Zoom+Care, and we’re excited to be collaborating with their administration and large team of naturopathic doctors to demonstrate to legislators how patients suffer when carriers restrict access to primary care providers.

Stay tuned for more on both of these bills! Other issues we’re tracking:

HB 2114 – Would have created criminal penalties for providers who prescribed too many opioids. Is being amended to be less draconian.